1. Field Of the Invention
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for blocking lips of a person speaking, blocking access, including visual and audio access, to what is being spoken by a person into a microphone, cellphone, or other sound receiver. In certain aspects, the present invention is directed to systems for adding material such as anti-viral material, anti-bacterial material, or breath-freshening material to a person's breath.
2. Description of Related Art
In variety of situations and activities, a person communicates with another using a communication device with a microphone, cellphone, or sound receiver positioned adjacent, e.g. in front of, the person's mouth. To prevent the access of someone else to what is being said, often the person holds a hand or another object, e.g. a paper or a clipboard, in front of the mouth so that what is being said into the microphone, etc. cannot be overheard, monitored, or recorded by someone else and/or so that the lips of the person speaking cannot be seen, monitored, or filmed by someone else. For example, and not by way of limitation or by way of exhaustion of pertinent and included scenarios, a person speaks into a cellphone and covers his or her lips with a hand or other object, or a football coach with a microphone headset holds a playbook or clipboard in front of his face while speaking so that an opponent cannot read his lips and cannot hear or discern what is being said. If in such a situation a person or a coach forgets to block his or her mouth, or inadvertently lowers a blocking object or item during speaking, an outsider, third party, spy, or opponent can gain confidential information or valuable information, e.g., trade secrets or information about how to counter what is going to happen on a playing field or in a playing arena. There are various other situations in which it is desirable to prevent others from knowing what a person speaking into a microphone, cellphone, or other sound receiver is saying.
There is a wide variety of known microphones, headsets, cellphones, and sound receivers used by a person in speaking to communicate information to another. Prior patents and applications disclose a variety of such apparatuses and devices, including, but not limited to, those in, and those referred to in or cited in, exemplary U.S. Patents: (all said patents incorporated fully herein for all purposes).
There has long been a need, recognized by the present inventor, for an effective way to inhibit or prevent unauthorized persons from having access to spoken communications for reception by (and possibly for transmission therefrom) a microphone, cellphone, or similar device that are meant only for those intended to receive the communication.
Injurious and/or deleterious living things can be present in a person's breath; for example, bacteria and viruses. There has long been a need, recognized by the present inventor, for an effective way to inhibit or prevent the air-borne transmission of these living things in a person's breath. There has also been a long-felt need for convenient and effective breath freshening of a person speaking.